Creative writing guides serve many purposes for the (aspiring) creative writer. In fact, there are just as many kinds of guides in the world as there are writers. If you are a beginning writer, suffering from writer ’ s block, looking to get inside the head of your favorite writer or simply looking to try out a new writing trick, there is bound to be one for you. Below are some guides that have served the Writing Center staff well in the past and a few new ones that we want to try out.

Featured Guide: Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose

This is a great guide for people who have not written very much or are intimidated by the thought of getting started. It operates around the thought some of the most valuable experience for learning how to be a good writer comes from being a good reader. Prose uses examples from books and stories that many avid readers are already comfortable with, like Flannery O ’ Connor ’ s “ A Good Man Is Hard to Find ” and The Great Gatsby. The organization of the book is also comforting if you are just starting out- it progresses naturally from words to sentences to paragraphs. Prose provides a list of “ books to be read immediately ” at the end of the book to get prospective writers started off on the right foot. - S.W.

Other Guides to Try Out

Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott

Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell

Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide From New York’s Acclaimed Writing School by The Gotham Writer’s Group

The Writing Experiment: Strategies for Innovative Creative Writing by Hazel Smith

The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives

On Writing by Stephen King

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg